Conventionally, an inspection device for inspection sensor characteristics and electrical characteristics (electric properties) of an IC chip in the sensor is disclosed in, for example, U.S. Pat. No. 6,037,793. Here, the IC chip as a sensor chip is formed on a semiconductor wafer.
The inspection device includes an inspection chamber (i.e., a probe chamber) for accommodating a semiconductor wafer, a probe (i.e., a probe of a probe card) as a contact member for contacting an electrode pad of the IC chip, and a tester for inspecting the electrical characteristics of the IC chip. The device performs the inspection of the electrical characteristics as a probing test so that the quality of the IC chip is checked.
When the IC chip is a sensor, not only the probing test for inspecting the electrical characteristics of the sensor but also a sensor characteristic test for inspecting sensor characteristics of the sensor is performed. On the basis of the sensor characteristic test, the sensor characteristics are adjusted. In general, this sensor characteristic test and adjustment of the sensor characteristics are performed after the sensor is packaged. Preferably, the sensor characteristic test and the adjustment of the sensor characteristics are performed in an earlier step of a manufacturing process of the sensor. This is because time loss and/or cost of manufacturing the sensor are reduced when a defective product of the sensor is eliminated in the earlier step. The defective product is decided on the basis of the sensor characteristic test and the adjustment of the sensor characteristics.
Accordingly, it is considered that the sensor characteristic test and the adjustment of the sensor characteristics are performed on a wafer to be a sensor chip. Specifically, a sensor portion and a circuit portion for processing a signal from the sensor portion are integrated into one IC chip so that one IC chip provides the sensor. The wafer includes multiple IC chips, and the wafer is divided into multiple chips so that each sensor is provided. However, when the sensor is a humidity sensor, it is required to inspecting and adjusting the sensor characteristics at different multiple temperature-humidity conditions having different humidity and different temperature. Here, the sensor characteristics include, for example, sensitivity of the sensor, temperature dependency (i.e., temperature characteristic) of the sensitivity, offset of the sensor and temperature dependency (i.e., temperature characteristic) of the offset. Even when the sensor portion and the circuit portion in the sensor are integrated into one IC chip, the inspection device disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 6,037,793 cannot inspect the sensor characteristics of the sensor, which is in a wafer state before the sensor is divided from the wafer.